Rik Anthony

Rik’s love for radio began when he as 12, growing up near Chicago. He followed his dream first by becoming a DJ for American Forces Radio in 1978 with the United States Air Force. Rik's radio career has spanned several markets including Cincinnati, Denver, Sacramento and even Guam before settling here in St. Louis in 1995. When he’s not playing the role of Senior Producer here at OnSTL, you can hear him many evenings and every weekend at 92.3 WIL-FM. Besides radio, Rik’s other passions include flying a plane, listening to music, going to the movies and being with his wife of 34 years. He has two grown children Shauna and Brad.

THE BUTLER – A fine job of acting by Forest Whitaker, Oprah and Cuba Gooding Jr. It does a nice job of portraying the Civil Rights struggle of the 20th century and remind us of what our ancestors did wrong. I did feel it did get a bit preachy at times, but it did have a mix of light-hearted moments as well. Look for some mentions about this film come Oscar time. Score it a B+

PARANOIA – The team of Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman that you liked in Air Force One are back. This time they are two Kings competing on the technology chessboard of life and Thor’s real-life brother Liam Hemsworth is the pawn , or is he? If you loved the Tom Cruise movie The Firm, you’re gonna love this one. Anber Heard provides some nice eye candy too. Score it an A-

THE WAY WAY BACK– This cute coming of age movie had two things going for it, but unfortunately that was pretty much it. Sam Rockwell’s early “Bill Murray-esque” character was a delight and the overly outgoing Allison Janney as the drunken neighbor was fun to watch. However, the rest of the cast, which included Steve Carell and Toni Collette, fell very short of what I was expecting. Coming from a loving family life, I felt for the 14-year-old lead, Liam James as Duncan, and his teen neighbor Susanna, who were victims of overbearing divorced parents. Another good point was the beach-side scenery. I'd wait for Netflix on this one. Score it a B

DESPICABLE ME 2 – It’s hard not to like an animated comedy, and this one delivered a lot of laughs. However, as cute as the Minions are, their voices (that remind me of characters from the Sims game) get a tad annoying after 45 minutes. It’s good entertainment for the kid units, but adults get most of what you need from the trailer. Score it a B.

RED 2 – This is best summed up in a Beach Boy’s song, “Fun, Fun, Fun.” I thought this sequel may have been better than the original. Mary Louis Parker, stole the show and I’m beginning to wonder, does John Malkovich play these lunatic roles so well because he actually is one? Stellar job on his part. This movie had action, plenty of laughs and enough twists to keep you wondering who’s on whose side? Highly recommend. Score it an A-

RIPD – or Ripped Off? Think Men in Black, meets Ghost and Ghostbusters. It was a very promising premise, but way over the top in the CGI execution. Jeff Bridges’ wild-west accent gets annoying after just ten minutes and Ryan Reynolds role could have been played by anyone. He tried to be like Will Smith, but brings nothing to this movie. This was our second Mary Louis Parker movie of the day, hmmm, how’d that happen? I think they tried too hard to be funny, which it really wasn’t. Wait for the DVD. Score it a C

THE HEAT – Going into it I had low expectations. The trailer looked weak and Melissa McCarthey is getting stereotyped into roles. Boy was I wrong! I laughed and laughed and laughed. This is a very vulgar movie, but it has so many fish-out-of-water, good-cop, bad-cop scenes that are zany enough to have you gasping for breath. I highly recommend seeing this one. Just don’t bring your kids and get ready for a barrage of F-Bombs. Score it an A-

MONTSER’S UNIVERSITY – Pixar continues to amaze me with their animation. This movie was the prequel to Monster’s Inc. It’s an animated version of Revenge of the Nerds, Back to School and the more recently, The Internship all rolled into one. I think many of the studios, who use real actors in real settings, should take a page from the play book of animation to see how it should be done. This movie doesn’t disappoint and is pure unadulterated fun for kids of all ages. Score it an A-

WORLD WAR Z – I had very high hopes for this movie since we saw the trailer last Christmas. I can’t say it lived up to the hype. The 3D effects were fair and unnecessary. Our friend Michael, who is a HUGE Zombie fan, said it didn’t have enough gore and the infected victims change into zombie in mere seconds then run like Olympic sprinters. My wife felt Mireille Enos, who played Brad Pitt’s wife, wasn’t pretty enough to be believable as “Brad Pitt’s wife.” (That’s a woman for ya) I really can’t pinpoint one primary reason why I didn’t like about this movie, but I didn’t. Score it a C+

MAN OF STEEL – There was plenty to like in this movie and there was plenty to dislike as well. I though the actors cast to play the roles were a good call, especially Amy Adams as Lois Lane. I didn’t care for flash-back, flash-forward then flash-back then…. I did appreciate the back-story about Krypton. I also enjoyed the awkward romantic vibe between Lois Lane and Clark/Kal El. However, the big negative is the length of the film is the length, 158 minutes. Mainly the long fight scene between Superman and General Zod, that was nothing more than a CGI’d wrestling match using the skyscrapers of Metropolis as the ropes and turnbuckles. Watch out for whiplash and plan your bathroom breaks accordingly. Score it a B-.